Politics and Culture

January 22, 2013

North Korea Watch

The North Korean authorities are putting pressure on citizens to assist in New Year state projects, starting at the beginning of the year with calls to “collect one ton of manure,” and then progressing to encompass the gathering of scrap metal.

A source from North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK about the situation on the 20th, explaining, “The authorities started harassing us with the manure collection project on the morning of New Year’s Day, and now they are pushing us to collect scrap metal.”

“They are looking for 10kg of scrap from everybody,” he added, going on, “People’s unit leaders are going from home to home emphasizing the need to give scrap metal. There are folks bitterly complaining that they’ll even have to give up their rice pots.”

“There is anger at the number of [non-tax payments] being forced upon people these days,” the source went on. “They say it’s like their ‘pockets are the nation’s safe.’ People wonder whether the country could ever survive without their money.”

Wasn't this how China's Great Leap Forward started, back in 1958, with peasants being forced to hand over scrap metal, including pots and pans? Three years later up to 45 million had died, either from starvation or from the accompanying violence.

Meanwhile, further to the recent visit to North Korea by Bill Richardson and Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, here's Nate Thayer wondering why a diary about the trip produced by Schmidt's teenage daughter was so much more informative than the coverage from Associated Press, who now have a bureau in Pyongyang with the blessing of the DPRK government which in no way compromises their determination to report the unvarnished truth oh dear me no.

And here is Sophie Schmidt's diary, which is well worth a look, not least for the excellent slideshow at the bottom.

Here she is on their visit to the "e-Library" at Kim Il Sung University:

Looks great, right? All this activity, all those monitors. Probably 90 desks in the room, all manned, with an identical scene one floor up.

One problem: No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in--a noisy bunch, with media in tow--not one of them looked up from their desks. Not a head turn, no eye contact, no reaction to stimuli. They might as well have been figurines.

One problem: No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in--a noisy bunch, with media in tow--not one of them looked up from their desks. Not a head turn, no eye contact, no reaction to stimuli. They might as well have been figurines.

Of all the stops we made, the e-Potemkin Village was among the more unsettling. We knew nothing about what we were seeing, even as it was in front of us. Were they really students? Did our handlers honestly think we bought it? Did they even care? Photo op and tour completed, maybe they dismantled the whole set and went home.

When one of our group went to peek back into the room, a man abruptly closed the door ahead of him and told him to move along.

"The e-Potemkin Village"....very good. And I can't resist adding the pre-trip cartoon she includes, from the South China Morning Post:

And finally, here's Jared Genser writing in the Washington Post on the hope that the UN might finally start making some noises about North Korea's appalling human rights record:

[F]or the first time in recent memory, there is reason to hope that the world might finally take notice. In a clarion call for action, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navanethem Pillay, last week urged the establishment of an independent international inquiry into the mass-atrocity crimes taking place in North Korea....

There is a rare window for meaningful action when the U.N. Human Rights Council opens its new session next month. Over the past decade, this body and its predecessor, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, have adopted annual and ineffectual resolutions on the human rights situation in North Korea. But this year, Pyongyang won’t have the votes of China, Russia and Cuba, three of North Korea’s biggest defenders; they had to step off the council after serving the maximum of two three-year terms without a break.

To be clear, even if the council establishes a commission of inquiry, that will be no panacea for challenges facing the people of North Korea. But having an independent and impartial group of experts under the U.N. rubric issue a highly detailed report and recommendations for action is a critical step that will make inaction much more difficult....

When the North Korean regime collapses and its crimes are fully exposed, historians will surely conclude we had enough information to act sooner. Now is the critical moment for President Obama and the United States to take action — and give the North Korean people hope that the world has not forgotten them.